Mass Flow transducers are used in a variety of industries to quantify the flow rate of a substance. Various types of mass flow transducers are known. For example, mass airflow transducers and liquid flow transducers are utilized in many commercial, consumer and medical applications. The medical industry, for example, uses mass flow transducers to monitor and control the breathing of a patient. One common technique for sensing mass flow involves utilizing multiple resistive temperature detectors on each side of a heating element parallel to the direction of flow. As a mass such as a fluid or gas flows across the resistors, resistors that are located upstream from the heating element are cooled, and resistors located downstream from the heating element are heated. When a voltage is applied across these resistors, an electrical signal is generated. The signal generated using multiple resistive temperature detectors are highly non-linear and not ideal for use in most “high accuracy” control systems.
Two types of methods are currently utilized to approximate a non-linear mass flow signal into a linear output: piece-wise linear functions or polynomial approximation. In piece-wise linear functions, the linear signal is approximated by many linear equations distributed throughout the range of the signal. In polynomial approximation, a polynomial expression is used to describe the signal. Another method has been implemented for linearizing a mass flow signal by subtracting discrete sinusoidal functions incremented by omega, a frequency increment, that describe the original error (or non-linearity) of the signal.
A need exists for improved accuracy in the generation of linear signal with less coefficients and mathematical steps as a part of mass flow transducer. It is believed that a solution to this problem involves the implementation of an improved method and system for linearizing the raw output of a mass airflow and/or liquid flow transducer as described in greater detail herein.